Who Are The Southern All Stars?

So just who are the Southern All Stars?

They are found on iTunes and other popular music sites very easily, mainly because they are a very popular Japanese band and considered by many as the most influential Japanese group ever.

Internationally their presence is not that well-known. I would guess the reason for this is because of their local popularity as a commercial music group which is why people overlook them. But I would like to suggest them to the rare groove maniacs and world music heads.

If you dig a little deeper, you can get a feel their superb musicianship which is a comprehensive mixture of Latin, Brazilian, roots reggae, and Japanese folk music.

In 1974, the band formed with a focus on Keisuke Kuwata & Yuko Hara in Tokyo. The name of Southern All Stars is from “Fania All-Stars” and “Southern rock”. One of their smash hit songs “Itoshi no Ellie” was covered by Ray Charles. Since then they continued making hit after hit records.